History YMMV / AmericanGirlsCollection

* JustHereForGodzilla: Two of the dolls also have a pinball accessory and a miniature ''VideoGame/PacMan'' replica to go with them. They're actually fully functional games that you can play. Some who otherwise have no interest in ''American Girls'' have admitted to wanting these particular accessories. Fortunately for this group, the official website actually lets you buy the accessories separately and ignore the dolls entirely.

** [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe Nostalgia-heavy]] articles, especially in the mid 2010s (from about 2013-2015) often lamented the shift of the company's promotional focus from being mostly about the Historical characters to mostly about the Girls of the Year. One widespread article was titled "[[https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/american-girls-arent-radical-anymore/275199/ American Girls Aren’t Radical Anymore]]" and proposed that the Historical Characters had covered the "most heated issues of their respective times" and taught important history, but many of them had been PutOnABus and replaced (on Mattel's call) by the less relevant Girls of the Year who worried about shallow things like art, dancing, and going on unrealistic trips around the world and didn't have the same impact with things such as "organic gardening and school art supplies" (The articles were often written by adults reflecting on their own childhood experiences with the brand prior to 2000, then looking up the website or catalogs to not see the same items they saw back then and thus [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaining that things had changed]].) While it's true some Historical characters were made unavailable to purchase for various reasons, their books remained accessible through the company for years (and even so, could be found on the secondary market) ''and'' the historical line has continued to exist in some form since 1986, with new characters for new eras added fairly regularly to keep the line active and refreshed. Plus, the modern characters each had their own relevant problems and addressed topics such as bullying, caring about the environment, and low school funding removing electives. Samantha wasn't retired so Isabelle could get kids to worry about ballet instead--they're two separate lines.

* FanMyopia: A lot of older fans can get locked onto several myopic ideas and opinions about the brand. Examples include that the best years of the company being before Mattel bought the company, the founder Pleasant Rowland was [[CreatorWorship purely noble in her mission and only did good]], product quality was at its best when they were a child, characters were more in depth in the past and hinged less on nostalgia, and the most popular characters of the brand are naturally, the Historical Characters (often released before a certain time period, with the other lines of the brand being mere hangers on). This was also an issue with the [=BeForever=] rebranding and later depreciation, which gets looked back on as having been completely inaccurate regarding the Historical Characters and thus, [[OpinionMyopia absolutely no one in the fandom found any good in it.]]

* PeripheryDemographic: American Girl has a lot of fans who are adult women, often doll collectors. They can be the strictest, most nostalgic fans, especially those who got into the dolls as kids and apply the NostalgiaFilter too hard. This can also lead to some of the... ''scarier'' parts of the fandom.

** A lot of the Beforever stuff has been assumed to be historically inaccurate, particularly bright and colourful items or things that would be considered unusual today. In particular, many people complained that Samantha's [=BeForever=] collection had too much emphasis on pink colored clothing. However, the availability of coal dyes starting in the mid-1800s made bright pink (among other colors) a very widespread fashion choice and highly popular. So yes, Samantha's Frilly Frock is historically accurate, including the lace-up boots (which are roundly mocked as "metallic" but were based on real ''satin'' boots, which would indeed have been shiny).

** Wait, the other ones can hear us??[[labelnote:Explanation]]2020's Girl of the Year, Joss Kendrick, is the first deaf character released, and many news articles stated she was the first doll with hearing loss. [[https://twitter.com/FaithKMoore/status/1212387067084394496 This tweet]] stated those exact words and went viral.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticMutation: At least some of the characters from the series ended up in a number of WebVideo/HitlerRants parodies on Website/YouTube. Some of the characters who appeared in the parodies, namely Felicity and Kit, were depicted as way off-character, either ending up being a {{Troll}} in the vein of Fegelein, as in the case of Felicity, or ranting like a maniac like Kit and Samantha.

** Among some corners of the community, there are constant calls from the VocalMinority to take American Girl "back to its roots" as a brand, generally to [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe whatever time their childhood with the brand was]], especially if it was the Pleasant Company era from 1986 to 1998. This often includes suggestions to discontinue any or all of the modern dolls (and any collaborations) or "too recent" Historicals such as Courtney and the Hoffman twins (from the 1980s and late 1990s respectively), reverting the [=BeForever=] redesigns, reverting the books to the older designs and six-book format, and/or rereleasing everything Historical that's been retired, including retired characters and items. The implication from these people is that this "restoration" will "revive the brand" and not only appeal to the older collectors who must all universally be fed up with the direction of the company, but be certain to bring in new audiences as well (who will surely understand how things used to be were better than now, appreciate the lack of anything modern or past a certain arbitrary endpoint of what counts as "historical", and not desire anything not near-to-exactly like the ways of the past). However, this is a position mostly held by really passionate fans of the brand including hardcore collectors, rather than casual fans of the brand who maybe enjoyed one or two characters and look back on them fondly--and overlooks the target child audience of eight- to twelve-year old girls who may not be as enthralled in the brand without modern characters, images, more recent history that their own parents or grandparents lived through,[[note]]In the mid-1990s, a grandmother of a fifth grader would've have a childhood close to Molly's era, but one of a fifth grader in the 2020s would've have a childhood closer to Julie's era. TimeMarchesOn.[[/note]] and modern-day characters and outfits similar to their own time to draw them in. This is especially egregious with collectors who call for a return to the [[FanMyopia oft-lauded Pleasant Company days]]--but were the target audience in the early 2000s by the time Mattel owned the brand!

* PortingDisaster: The [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.americangirl.welliewishersapp Android port]] of ''[=WellieWishers=]: Garden Fun'', was particularly egregious as it flat-out crashes on certain devices due to an error with the Unity engine powering it. And it got even worse when [x]cube Games released version 1.1, to which no device was able to run it for some reason. It didn't help that ''Garden Fun'' is an AllegedlyFreeGame requiring in-app purchases to unlock minigames and is nothing more than a social "clicker" game at its core, both of which have been controversial business models especially with games aimed at children.

** Saint Pleasant (of Rowland)[[labelnote:Explanation]]Many older collectors--in a strong case of FanMyopia--think the best time of the company was prior to the 1998 purchase of the company by Mattel when it was still owned by the founder, Pleasant Rowland. They often push the narrative Ms. Rowland was naught but a sweet good-hearted educator who only wanted to teach about American history with dolls girls could relate to, and was all but strong armed into selling her beloved niche brand to mean old Mattel. (Hence the term "Pre-Mattel" used as a marker of quality or nostalgia.) Several other collectors mock the misinterpretation/deification of the founder by calling her a "saint", because she's all but treated like one: a perfect creator of the brand with no faults whose return would save the brand, and never a capitalist at all who took the $700 million Mattel offered willingly.[[/labelnote]]

** Children who got Molly might have been confused that her penny was silver, not copper like was expected. Steel pennies really were minted in 1943 due to copper shortages. In fact--early in the line's creation--the penny that came with Molly dolls were ''actual coinage''. (This was, sensibly, changed to copies later on.)

* AluminumChristmasTrees: A lot of the Beforever stuff has been assumed to be historically inaccurate, particularly bright and colourful items or things that would be considered unusual today. In particular, many people complained that Samantha's [=BeForever=] collection had too much emphasis on pink colored clothing. However, the availability of coal dyes starting in the mid-1800s made bright pink (among other colors) a very widespread fashion choice and highly popular. So yes, Samantha's Frilly Frock is historically accurate, including the lace-up boots (which are roundly mocked as "metallic" but were based on real ''satin'' boots, which would indeed have been shiny).

** Addy, the franchise's only black doll until the release of Cécile Rey in 2011 (followed by Melody in 2016 and Claudie in 2022), is a controversial character. She is both celebrated for representing black girls in history ''and'' criticized for painfully reducing black history to slavery. [[https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/the-making-of-addy-walker-american-girls-first-black-doll.html This article]] goes into more detail about it, both how the then-Pleasant Company sought black writers, artists, and advisors and how those same people clashed with the company's often ignorant higher-ups and struggled to do the job they were hired to do as a result. As one commenter put it, "Would you really want the only doll to which your child can relate to be a story about how her ancestors were being raped, beaten and exploited while worrying if you would ever see a second doll?" Addy fans and supporters, however, point out that that's ''not'' the story; people who reduce her to "slave doll" ignore that enslavement was a slivre of her story and escaping was the main drive of the first book (and the line goes hard on that, ''never'' having made any side stories or merchandise set before her escape) and her story isn't about being enslaved at all, it's about her life in freedom. Also, many of the members of the cultural panel considered other widely known Black-focused historical eras, but every other era led back to the truth of African enslavement and so they decided it should be addressed first.

** Addy, the franchise's only black doll until the releases of Cécile Rey in 2011, Melody in 2016, and Claudie in 2022, is a controversial character. She is both celebrated for representing black girls and criticized for painfully reducing black history to slavery. [[https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/the-making-of-addy-walker-american-girls-first-black-doll.html This article]] goes into more detail about it, both how the then-Pleasant Company sought black writers, artists, and advisors and how those same people clashed with the company's often ignorant higher-ups and struggled to do the job they were hired to do as a result. As one commenter put it, "Would you really want the only doll to which your child can relate to be a story about how her ancestors were being raped, beaten and exploited while worrying if you would ever see a second doll?" Addy fans, however, point out that that's ''not'' the story; people who reduce her to "slave doll" ignore that escaping was her origin (and the line goes hard on that, ''never'' having made any side stories or merchandise set before her escape) and her story isn't about being a slave at all, it's about her life in freedom. Also, many of the cultural panel attempted to select other eras, but every other era led back to the truth of African slavery and so they decided it should be addressed first.

** Agnes and Agatha, whom fans often accuse of replacing Nellie as "safe" friends for Samantha who aren't walking metaphors for classism and the bad parts of the Edwardian era. (This was not helped by the fact the first author was replaced two books in, with a separate author for the third book and the series completed by Valerie Tripp.) Nellie came back in ''Changes for Samantha'' and is present for stories set after [[spoiler:her parents' deaths and her and her sister's adoption by the Edwards.]]
** Caroline also got a lot of this for replacing Felicity (and [[RealWomenDontWearDresses being blonde and wearing pink gowns]]), as has Nanea for daring to share a time period with the then-long-archived Molly (even if Molly's been rereleased three separate times after Nanea came out, so Nanea hasn't really ''replaced'' her).

** Agnes and Agatha, whom fans accused of replacing Nellie as "safe" friends for Samantha who weren't walking metaphors for classism and the bad parts of the Edwardian era, until Nellie came back in "Changes for Samantha" and subsequent stories.

* ReplacementScrappy: Agnes and Agatha, who replaced Nellie as "safe" friends for Samantha who weren't walking metaphors for classism and the bad parts of the Edwardian era. Caroline also got a lot of this for replacing Felicity (and [[RealWomenDontWearDresses being blonde and wearing pink gowns]]), as has Nanea for daring to share a time period with the then-long-archived Molly (even if Molly's been rereleased three separate times after Nanea came out, so Nanea hasn't really ''replaced'' her). In the past this was also said about Cécile and Marie-Grace replacing Kirsten, but since they only got three years and are rarely acknowledged by the company, they get treated a lot kinder now.

** Felicity Merriman was played by a fourteen-year-old Creator/ShaileneWoodley (who would later gain fame through acting in the films for ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' and ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'').

** In ''Samantha: an American Girl Holiday'', Samantha is played by nine-year-old Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb in her first lead role. The next year, she would break out in ''Literature/BecauseOfWinnDixie'' and ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', then later star in ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'', ''Film/RaceToWitchMountain'', ''Film/SoulSurfer'' and ''Series/TheCarrieDiaries.'' In October 2022, Robb dressed again as Samantha for Halloween.

* In ''Samantha: an American Girl Holiday'', Samantha is played by nine-year-old Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb in her first lead role. The next year, she would break out in ''Literature/BecauseOfWinnDixie'' and ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', then later star in ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'', ''Film/RaceToWitchMountain'', ''Film/SoulSurfer'' and ''Series/TheCarrieDiaries.'' In October 2022, Robb dressed again as Samantha for Halloween.

** The first two films introduced two young actresses who would go on to achieve--if not superstardom--success in their acting careers nearly a decade before they became famous. Samantha Parkington was played by a nine-year-old Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb, and Felicity Merriman was played by a fourteen-year-old Creator/ShaileneWoodley (who would later gain fame through acting in the films for ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' and ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'').

** Future Golden Globe nominee Creator/KaitlynDever had her film debut as Gwen in ''Chrissa Stands Strong''.

** Saint Pleasant (of Rowland)[[labelnote:Explanation]]Many older collectors--in a strong case of FanMyopia--think the best time of the company was prior to the 1998 purchase of the company by Mattel when it was still owned by the founder, Pleasant Rowland. They often push the narrative Ms. Rowland was naught but a sweet good hearted educator who only wanted to teach about American history with dolls girls could relate to, and was all but strong armed into selling her beloved niche brand to mean old Mattel. (Hence the term "Pre-Mattel" used as a marker of quality or nostalgia.) Several other collectors mock the misinterpretation/deification of the founder by calling her a "saint", because she's all but treated like one: a perfect creator of the brand with no faults whose return would save the brand, and never a capitalist at all who took the $700 Mattel offered willingly.[[/labelnote]]

** The [[https://www.nabitablet.com/nabi-americangirl American Girl-themed Nabi tablet]], which is essentially a rebadged [[https://www.nabitablet.com/nabi-se Nabi SE]] with American Girl-themed apps bundled and a berry-colored bumper. Using the same [=MediaTek=] [=MT8127=] system-on-chip as the [[Franchise/LeapFrog [=LeapFrog=] Epic]], it wasn't without performance issues, as Nabi Mode tends to lock up or glitch out and the Android operating system being used gets sluggish at points, and adding insult to injury is its pathetically short battery life and the battery pack itself occasionally swelling up--a safety hazard considering the device's intended audience. To think that the Epic's performance was lackluster enough for its price.

** The name of Lila's shy, distant horse that she brings out of her shell is names Hollyhock--like the illegitimate relative [[spoiler:(sister)]] of WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman.

* ShipToShipCombat: Felicity/Ben versus Felicity/Elizabeth. The former camp cites the age rating and [[ValuesDissonance historical attitudes]] as evidence for why its opponent will never be canon, whereas the latter camp shoots back with ''modern'' attitudes' {{squick}} over the [[MayDecemberRomance age gap]] between Felicity and Ben. Occasionally, elements of the ships' opposing supporters sometimes bury their differences by proposing a triad of Felicity/Ben/Elizabeth.

** Mattel purchased Pleasant Company in 1998 and took over in 2000. They frequently remodeled the dolls and outfits as well as retired a lot of items. In some corners of fandom, anything made after 1998 is utter crap and not worth collecting. (The Pleasant Company items vary in quality but are still seen as "better" by others.) Some collectors use the loaded phrase "Pre-Mattel" to indicate any items made before 2000, implying they are better.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The modern line of American Girl (first known as American Girl of Today, now called Truly Me) falls into this. When the modern line started in 1995 the clothes for the dolls were, if not the height of modern fashion, at least reasonably fashionable for an eight-to-twelve year old girl to be seen in. As time—and fashion—moved on, many of the older clothes fell out of fashion and heavily reflect the eras they were released in. In fact, some of the older clothes designs from the 1990s started being used as "throwback" clothing for the 1990s characters, Isabel and Nicki, in 2023.

** Saint Pleasant (of Rowland)[[labelnote:Explanation]]Many older collectors--in a strong case of FanMyopia--think the best time of the company was prior to the 1998 purchase of the company by Mattel when it was still owned by the first founder, Pleasant Rowland. They often push the narrative Ms. Rowland was naught but a sweet good hearted educator who only wanted to teach about American history with dolls girls could relate to, and was all but strong armed into selling her beloved niche brand to mean old Mattel. (Hence the term "Pre-Mattel" used as a marker of quality or nostalgia.) Several other collectors mock the misinterpretation/deification of the founder by calling her a "saint", because she's all but treated like one: a perfect creator of the brand with no faults whose return would save the brand, and never a capitalist at all who took the $700 Mattel offered willingly.[[/labelnote]]